Towards the end now

 The landscape for the final five kilometres or so is typically open pastures with small clumps of eucalypts or individual trees standing in the midst of grassland. However, the surrounding hills and ridges have a good forest cover.  I love the little oases that farm dams become - providing habitat for frogs and reptiles and an assortment of birds.  The trees cast welcome shade for the cattle.

 The influence of just a single tree is very obvious in this shot as the lush green grass grows under and around the base of this large fig. Rainwater is funnelled down the branches and trunk of the tree while rain also drips off the leaves, providing both additional moisture as well as shade for the grass below. It's also pretty obvious that cattle haven't been in this paddock for a while or that luck grass would be eaten down.

 Almost the entire length of the road has been unsealed and so the final few kilometres of sealed road is a welcome relief and provides a modicum of respite for my feet which have taken the brunt of the irregular and loose surfaces of the road up to now.  I rather unwisely wore anklet gym socks and ordinary flat soled shoes which in hindsight was not the best of decisions for a walk of this length.

 Oops, a little out of sequence, but we can live with that, can't we.  An old milestone now used, somewhat inelegantly, I think, as a perch for a letter box.  7 miles to Kyogle and 33 miles to M which I assume would be Murwillumbah (though I think it would be further than that, but maybe not).

 A chorus of bell birds tinting away accompanied me for the very last couple of kilometres. The thicker eucalyptus forest grew between the road and a creek, providing the kind of habitat that the birds enjoy. Unfortunately, bell birds are doing great damage to eucalpyt forests up this way and beyond.  They 'farm' lerps which are little animals that suck the sap out of the ecualypt and the birds then eat the sugary secretion that the lerps produce when they are annoyed by the birds. The bellbirds keep out other birds that also eat the lerps, resulting in too much lerp damage to the trees, and which can result in the death of large areas of forest.

And finally! The end is in sight. 17kms and 4 hours later I arrive where I had left my vehicle earlier in the morning.  I think 4 hours is a somewhat slow result, but the walk was a very relaxed one and I stopped many times to take photographs and enjoy the views, and my feet were quite sore during the last third of the walk due to inappropriate sock-ware.  Anyway, I'm very glad I did it, and I look forward to taking you along to my next long distance walk sometime soon.